Quick Update

Life is good. I can't believe it is going to be Halloween this weekend! How time flies.

James is getting bigger and continues to be so much fun. I don't know if I am just paying attention more but I've noticed him progressing quite a bit recently. He still doesn't say any "words" but our communication has improved a lot. I can tell him to go get a toy or a book and he knows exactly where to go in the house to get it. He understands so much more than he used to and it is fun to see that he gets it when I tell him things. He has just started to get into books (finally!). We got a book from the library about machines used for work and he loves it. He will bring it to me and Phil for us to read to him. He is especially obsessed with the garbage truck...not sure why. We also have a "my little word" book that has themed pages with pictures falling under those themes. He has discovered the pages that have pictures of things that go (car, plane, helicoptors, tractors, etc). It is so fun to see how much he likes that kind of stuff. It is amazing at how aware he is of his surroundings. Noises that I naturally block out he is quick to point out. Every time a plane flies overhead he points up and tries to find it in the sky.

Some funny happenings with James: The other night we sat down to call John and Becca (Phil's brother) and discovered their contact info had been erased. That is what we get for letting him play with our phone. That same night we were woken up in the middle of the night by our alarm clock (the one we never use because we use our phone alarm instead). Thank you James! It made us laugh.

I have been feeling great. I reached 20weeks yesterday. Half way there! I've been surprised at how tired I still am. I try to catch a nap during the day which helps me immensely! I have started to feel movement and have been surprised at how little I have felt compared with James. I have definitely started to show and have received comments from strangers about expecting (will post some pictures for you Eevi in the near future). My own clothes are starting to not work out so well and I'll have to resort to maternity clothes full time in the near future. I have had several ultrasounds (my doctor just does them at every appointment instead of using the doppler) and so far he confidently thinks it is a girl! We have one more ultrasound in a couple of weeks so we'll see if anything extra decides to appear before then!

The only true "issue" I've had is with a low platelet count. I've actually had low platelets every time my blood has been taken in the past (not being pregnant as well) but never worried much about it (at least not enough to go get it checked out). My doctor wants to make sure everything is okay so I get to go see a Hematologist this next week. It will be interesting to see what happens. Even if they find something wrong, I doubt they will do anything while I'm still pregnant. Yeah for getting to see more doctors...

Phil is great. Loves school but is ready for year 3 and 4 so he can start to be a "doctor" instead of just a "student". He is pretty amazing at how he balances everything out, especially me. He has been training for a marathon and has been doing great. He has been surprised at how much he has enjoyed it. He gets to run 20 miles this next Saturday (I think). I'm not sure when he plans to run this marathon, as he is mapping out his own course and is just running it. I will be the fan club/water girl/finish line party/etc. I'm really proud of him and his determination to do it. When I go running for my few miles, I'm grateful that I don't have to run as far has he does.

So life goes on! Until next post...

What are the odds?

What are the odds?

I happen to be driving down the freeway during one of the worst storms of the year yesterday. Hail, at least the size of marbles, starts pelting my car and is deafening inside. I can't see a thing in front of me and everybody is stopped around me (except for the daring guy in the truck behind me who zig zags around everybody and takes off). My child starts to scream because of the noise. It finally lifts up a bit, enough to increase the speed and continue on my way on the what looks like snow packed freeway. I'm a half mile away from my exit practically under a bridge when traffic comes to a halt again. No one is moving. Time ticks away...it continues raining and because of all the rain, water starts to rise right where I'm at...and not just from the rain but the drains under the bridge have water spewing out of them filling up the "dip" I'm in even faster because of the overload of water . I'm able to move out a little bit due to a tiny bit of movement of cars but none the less, we are still stalled. I get a little nervous thinking, "Is it possible for water to come through my doors?" but dismissing the idea since we should be moving soon, right?

Apparently there were some power lines that were live and sparking that were torn down from the storm right over the freeway right where my exit was. Everyone was completely stuck. I ended up sitting on the freeway for almost 2 hours and yes, my car did fill with water. I thought I was fine until I looked back and saw that there was 2 inches of water on the ground in my backseat area. "What in the world? How did that get there?" since no water was coming through the doors. Apparently, water can seep through the bottom of my car. To make this long story short, my car filled up with water up to the doors. I started to get really nervous when my oil light and check engine light came on. The thoughts of water getting into my engine made me really nervous!

The big positives of the situation?

• People around me were really nice. They started honking to get cars to move up a little bit which helped the water go down about an inch and made my check engine light go off. When another lane started to move before mine, they let me go first to try to get me out of the water.
• James was an angel! He actually fell asleep for the first hour of our stop and then hardly fussed for the next hour (which is truly a miracle since he hates his carseat). Crying babies just don't help my stress level.
• I had my cell phone so I was able to get updates of what was going on a mile in front of me. I was able to make calls to arrange the change of plans of my evening (I had to miss a presidency meeting). Plus, talking to family helped pass the time and ease fears...it just helps to talk things out.
• I was even able to laugh in the middle of the situation. What else could I do? I was completely stuck with no where to go.
• I have AMAZING family that take care of me! After I got off the freeway, I was able to get to my parents where they have a vacuum that sucks up water to try to "clean up" my car. They also have a big garage where we could leave the car with doors open to dry out (since we don't have a garage, I don't trust our neighborhood to just leave my car with open doors or windows.)

What a funny experience for me. Thankfully, I was also able to reach Phil at school to tell him what I was doing to our car while he was gone! I'm so glad everything worked out fine. It could have been so much worse!!

Randy vacuumming out the car

James having fun

A smile for the camera from Steve


Everybody hard at work